A note of caution over Cameron’s welcome attack on lobbyists

Patricia Shaw

Nasty echoes of the Channel 4 Dispatches and Peter Oborne's revelations about Tory links with the Israeli hard right.

Pricky Gayes

Quite.

Geoff

Vunerable?

All the more reason to make a pre-emptive strike, before Mandelson & the labour / BBC / Guardian spin machine get into gear.

patrick

More importantly, where do we start the petition for a referendum on the EU constitution?

A million signatures and we get a vote in the commons.

Verity

Could David Cameron please put on his jacket. What's he going to appear in next to prove that he is just a regular fella - his pajamas?

THX1138

I note Cameron "bottled" his well trailed "disgusting sight" attack on Brown.. He's need to toughen up.

In2minds

Lobbying and lobbyists, does this include the trade unions?

Maggie

Politicians are elected to govern on behalf of the electorate. It is an outrage that anyone is allowed to interfere with the business of parliament by lobbying, or offering incentives, on behalf of vested interests seeking special treatment. The current government is corrupted beyond salvation and the parasites who hang around Westminster seeking influence through their chequebooks bear a large responsiblity for that. Cameron must ignore all fainthearted doubers. He's come up with a brilliant solution to another of our multifarious national problems and I hope he sticks with it.

denis cooper

patrick, we've already had a vote in the Commons about a referendum on the EU Constitution, aka the Lisbon Treaty, and as you can see here:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080305/debtext/80305-0023.htm

the answer was "no".

DavidDP

"Nasty echoes of the Channel 4 Dispatches and Peter Oborne's revelations about Tory links with the Israeli hard right."

You mean this article is a lie too?

TrevorsDen

Israeli hard right?

And all Verity could find to talk about this time was Camerons shirt.

She and UKIP are going to have to 'toughen up' their attacks or risk derision.

Lobbyists will like the poor and bent scientists always be with us.

Blofeld's Cat

Verity - over here it's spelt pyjamas.

And it really doesn't matter to me what he wears.

Chuck Unsworth

Next up Verity will be complaining about Cameron's choices of tailor, neck-tie, colour of shirt, aftershave, underwear, shoes and socks.

Personally I couldn't care less if Cameron stands at the podium dressed only in a chamois leather thong. It's what he says and does which I find of interest.

Ian Wiseman

"Next up Verity will be complaining about Cameron's choices of tailor, neck-tie,.... and socks."

Ah yes, what you might call the eternal Verity.

Marcus Cotswell

As (ahem) a lobbyist (full disclosure there) can someone please explain to me what exactly is wrong with lobbying? "Quod omnes tanget ab omnibus approbari debet" and all that. It stands to reason, does it not, that businesses operating in the United Kingdom will have (entirely legitimate) interests, and also a wealth of expertise in the provision of various goods and services, and in most cases far better knowledge of their customers (aka the great British public) than government departments. We all live in a far, far better world as a result of lobbyists, acting on behalf of these business interests, ensuring that bureaucrats and know-nothing ministers don't just go off and make policy on the hoof without reference to people who actually have some knowledge of the real world. Lobbying does not have to mean corruption - and of course there should be safeguards against ministers (and senior civil servants for that matter) abusing their position. But the vast majority of lobbyists are just earning an honest crust helping their clients to understand the import of government policy and, where necessary, try to influence it in a way which helps them carry on doing business profitably.

Maggie

(Lobbyists have)..far better knowledge of their customers.."

I don't think so. No-one wants GM crops grown in this country. No-one wants to be lied to about the origin of their food. No-one wants tiny little houses/flats with tiny little rooms. No-one wants unfettered immigration. No-one wants every town and city filled with identical chain shops. No-one wants supermarkets to destroy local trade in villages and market towns. No-one wants shops on every High Street stuffed with badly-made third world tat. No-one wants them - but we've got them anyway because lobbyists ensured the perversion of laws designed to protect us from sleazebags.

patrick

but denis cooper, we can win a vote after the election when labour have been kicked out

Verity

My point is that Cameron's eagerness to appear to be what he's not, a salesman in a computer store, make him look weak, weak, weak.

He is not the type of man who would go out without a jacket and pretending that he is to - in his febrile mind - make "ordinary" people think he's one of them is weak. He's leading, God help us, the Conservative Party. No one minds a toff. It's Labour that's full of class hatred. Cameron is, as always, fighting the wrong battle.

Liz Brown

I think that Verity needs to get out more. Mr Cameron is attacking her beloved Leader and she can't accept that he is right

Chuck Unsworth

By contrast Brown looks as if he's never been able to get his jacket off. He must wear it in bed. Certainly looks that way. Never seen an iron since the day it was screwed together. Sketchleys probably refused to tender.

Anyway, how would people here like to see Brown 'deshabille' - even if only very slightly?

I think I feel slightly nauseous....

Holly ......

You can always tell when DC done good.
The trolls come out in force.
Verity,Verity, Verity.
Your liking of him is becoming way too obvious.
No use denying this.
You must 'inspect' every picture put up.
What is wrong with you.
Yes he is gorgeous,and if I was younger & single,yes I would.
I had to scroll back up to have a look, I never even noticed what he was wearing.
I will post a comment on Conservativehome that he should take his shirt off whenever he takes his jacket off,so you have less to drool over.(Well,we'll see).

denis cooper

patrick, Cameron has already ruled out a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, on the specious grounds that it no longer exists. Even though the EU seems to think that it does still exist, and lists it here along with the other treaties:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/index.htm

and even though Section 2 of the European Union (Amendment) Act 2008 has added it to list of treaties in Section 1(2) of the European Communities Act 1972. If Cameron was right and the Lisbon Treaty no longer existed, then of course that Section 2 would have been rendered meaningless.

Paddy

Brown looks like a door to door salesman.

Go for it Cameron - don't hold back.

Make him angry so we can see his temper again.

quadratus

If things go pear-shaped for Portugal,Lisbon will no longer even be in the Euro zone.What happens to the status of the treaty then?.Perhaps they will give it to Gord as a keepsake to put with his compass?